Sons of Norway

(Sonner av Norge)

Year
2011

Runtime
88 mins

Language
Norwegian, English subtitles

Subtitles
Norwegian language with English subtitles

Alberta Premiere

Nikolaj's family is anything but ordinary. Newly arrived in the planned community of Rykkin — a town his father helped design — they're the type to celebrate Christmas by quoting Nietzsche and staging a playful protest against the patriarchy. Rebellion is in his blood.

When Nikolaj's mother is killed in a traffic accident and his father descends into a seemingly endless depression, Nikolaj seeks his own way to lash out at the world's unfairness. Armed with safety pins, hair dye and the Sex Pistols' newly minted Never Mind the Bollocks, Nikolaj embraces Johnny Rotten's rallying cry of “No future” as the only way through.

A punk-rock coming-of-age story, Sons of Norway is thoughtful and raucous all at once. As Nikolaj's father starts to take inspiration from his son's new-found nihilism, the question becomes, how do you rebel when your dad is right there beside you?